Rudy Gay Is Part Of Grizzlies, Raptors, Pistons Three-Way Deal

For weeks, Rudy Gay of the Memphis Grizzlies had been rumored in trade speculation. Well, the deal has finally been done. And it involved more than one team. Here’s Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo! Sports with the final report:

The Memphis Grizzlies have reached an agreement in principle to trade forward Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

The Grizzlies receive point guard Jose Calderon as part of the deal, and will route Calderon’s $10.5 million expiring contract to the Detroit Pistons for a package that includes forwards Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye, league sources told Y! Sports. The Raptors also sent forward Ed Davis and a second-round pick to the Grizzlies. Memphis sent center Hamed Haddadi to the Raptors.

The Raptors had been rumored to deal Calderon and Andrea Bargnani for a while now. The Pistons now get to have a veteran point guard to help out Brandon Knight. And since Calderon’s contract is expiring, it will relieve Detroit of some salary. Tayshaun Prince signed a four-year, $28 million deal with the Pistons in December 2011, which became more of an albatross as time went on. Grizzlies were willing to take on a smaller salary than that of Rudy Gay’s. Detroit also sent out little-used Daye, who is set to be a restricted free agent this summer. So if anything, it’s salary relief for the Pistons.

If the Raptors don’t mind getting that extra salary on them, then maybe getting Gay isn’t such a bad maneuver after all. Rudy Gay is due for about $37 million after this year (player option on the second season). Toronto is 16-29 and 5 1/2 games behind the 8th spot so maybe they’re going to try to make a playoff push. The Raptors also add to their frontline by adding 7’2″ Hamed Haddadi.

As for the Grizzlies, they made an earlier trade that sent Marresse Speights and Wayne Ellington to the Cavaliers for more salary dump. But they did get back Prince and Daye, who are both long-armed and could help out on the perimeter on both sides of the ball. The gem here might be Ed Davis, who has been a pretty underrated power forward. The southpaw Davis is averaging 9.7 points and 6.7 boards this season and could fill in the gap Speights left on the bench. I’m starting to like this trade more for the Grizzlies.

Either way, all of these teams made a deal that might have some sense, after all. At least, Rudy Gay won’t have to be bothered at all anymore, even though he claimed he wasn’t.